Graves Of Twin Moon Probes Spotted By NASA Spacecraft

YAHOO.COM - An eagle-eyed NASA spacecraft has spotted the tiny craters two moon probes created when they crashed intentionally into the lunar surface last year.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) snapped a series of photographs of the two 16.5-foot-wide (5 meters) craters, which mark where the space agency's twin Grail probes ended their gravity-mapping mission, and their operational lives, on Dec. 17.

"It was really fun to find the craters," Mark Robinson of Arizona State University, principal investigator for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC), said today (March 19) during a press conference at the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas.

It's a bit of a surprise that the LROC team was able to find the craters at all, Robinson added. LRO orbits the moon at an altitude of about 100 miles (160 kilometers), and the craters are small, nondescript features on a body riddled with impact scars. [Grail Probes' Final Moments (Video)]

The two Grail spacecraft — known as Ebb and Flow — slammed into a mountain near the lunar north pole at 3,771 mph (6,070 km/h), striking the lunar surface about 20 seconds apart. They were running out of fuel and were bound to crash at some point, so the Grail team brought them down in a controlled fashion away from areas of historical importance such as the Apollo landing sites.

The Grail craters first showed up in LROC photos from January, but images taken on Feb. 28 show them in much greater detail. Robinson and his team used these later photos to produce a topographic map of the impact zone, which was named after the late NASA astronaut Sally Ride, who had led Grail's educational MoonKAM project before her death last July.

This map revealed that the two craters are separated by about 7,250 feet (2,210 m) in straight-line distance and 985 feet (300 m) in altitude, researchers said. Surprisingly, the crashes ejected material that appears darker than the surrounding lunar dirt.

"Fresh impact craters on the moon are typically bright, but these may be dark due to spacecraft material being mixed with the ejecta," Robinson said in a statement. This material may be residual fuel left in the probes' lines, or bits of their carbon-fiber bodies, he added.

LRO also managed to observe the immediate aftermath of the Dec. 17 Grail impacts after performing some precision maneuvering, team members announced today.

LRO didn't get any images of the actual crashes, which occurred in the dark. But its ultraviolet imaging spectrograph did see emissions from mercury and atomic hydrogen in the ejected plumes when they rose high enough to reach sunlight.

"This gives insight into how volatile material is transported around the moon," LRO chief scientist John Keller, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement. "It gives us a data point that helps constrain models of volatile transport, especially for models that describe how volatile material can get transported from warm to cold areas on the moon."

The analysis of the Grail impact plumes is ongoing, researchers added.

The $496 million Grail mission — short for Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory — launched in September 2011. Ebb and Flow arrived at the moon about three months later, then raced around Earth's satellite in tandem, mapping out its gravity field in unprecedented detail.

The probes' measurements have allowed scientists to create the best-ever gravity map of any celestial body, Grail scientists say. And that map is getting better all the time, as researchers continue to analyze the data Ebb and Flow gathered in their last weeks and months.

The twin probes, which were each about the size of a washing machine, zipped around the moon at an average altitude of 7 miles (11 km) in their final days.

"They dedicated their existence to science," Grail chief scientist Maria Zuber of MIT said during today's press conference, which also revealed an updated lunar gravity map. "Their demise allowed us to map the moon at a very low altitude that enabled the high-resolution maps that you see today."

SPOKANE, Wash. - An elderly North Spokane woman has been living in fear for months. She said an estranged relative abandoned a trailer in her backyard and then took off. She said the trailer has now attracted squatters and all sorts of criminal activity. She said she tried desperately to get it removed without any luck.

SPOKANE, Wash. - An elderly North Spokane woman has been living in fear for months. She said an estranged relative abandoned a trailer in her backyard and then took off. She said the trailer has now attracted squatters and all sorts of criminal activity. She said she tried desperately to get it removed without any luck.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - An 8-year-old Sacramento boy was beaten to death with a hammer while protecting his younger sister from being sexually assaulted by his mother's ex-boyfriend, according to court documents.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - An 8-year-old Sacramento boy was beaten to death with a hammer while protecting his younger sister from being sexually assaulted by his mother's ex-boyfriend, according to court documents. Investigators say Dante Daniels was beaten on September 1 and died six days later from his injuries. A criminal complaint says 23-year-old Deandre Chaney Jr. was performing a criminal lewd act on Dante's 7-year-old sister when Dante stepped in to help.

COLFAX, Wash. - Update 6:23 p.m.: Officials with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network say a reported explosion near Colfax Monday afternoon may have been the result of a faulty reading related to an earthquake in Montana.

COLFAX, Wash. - Update 6:23 p.m.: Officials with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network say a reported explosion near Colfax Monday afternoon may have been the result of a faulty reading related to an earthquake in Montana.

SPOKANE, Wash. - It's no secret that Spokane is struggling to fight homelessness in a battle that's been going on for years. People are getting passionate about what is and isn't being done about it. On Monday night, the city of Spokane wanted to hear from the community about tackling the problem of homelessness. Over a hundred people came to the meeting.

SPOKANE, Wash. - It's no secret that Spokane is struggling to fight homelessness in a battle that's been going on for years. People are getting passionate about what is and isn't being done about it. On Monday night, the city of Spokane wanted to hear from the community about tackling the problem of homelessness. Over a hundred people came to the meeting.

BREAKING: Charges of fraud and corruption in NCAA basketball have been brought against 10 individuals including coaches. The FBI has arrested ten people, including four college basketball coaches, as well as managers, financial advisors, and representatives of a major international sportswear company in a fraud & corruption probe.

BREAKING: Charges of fraud and corruption in NCAA basketball have been brought against 10 individuals including coaches. The FBI has arrested ten people, including four college basketball coaches, as well as managers, financial advisors, and representatives of a major international sportswear company in a fraud & corruption probe.

SPOKANE, Wash. - After a house break-in and burglary, one man already had enough on his plate. But then, he found out his dog was missing. “This was his area. This was his spot,” says Sean Copko. Sean got his 9-week-old blue heeler puppy Dale recently. He’s been posting his dog’s picture all over town in the hopes of finding him. “He's a little sweetheart,” he says.

SPOKANE, Wash. - After a house break-in and burglary, one man already had enough on his plate. But then, he found out his dog was missing. “This was his area. This was his spot,” says Sean Copko. Sean got his 9-week-old blue heeler puppy Dale recently. He’s been posting his dog’s picture all over town in the hopes of finding him. “He's a little sweetheart,” he says.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a mailing mix up, a little girl in Washington, D.C. sent her letter asking pet supply store Petco asking for a hamster to Pepco, a D.C. utility company. Despite her minor mix up, her letter seemed to win over the power company. Cynthia McCabe, Pepco's Communications Director, tweeted that customer services representatives decided to make Serenity's wish come true and gave her a hamster anyway. What a lucky

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a mailing mix up, a little girl in Washington, D.C. sent her letter asking pet supply store Petco asking for a hamster to Pepco, a D.C. utility company. Despite her minor mix up, her letter seemed to win over the power company. Cynthia McCabe, Pepco's Communications Director, tweeted that customer services representatives decided to make Serenity's wish come true and gave her a hamster anyway. What a lucky

DENVER, Co. (AP) - A Colorado principal has retired and an athletic director has resigned after videos surfaced showing a high school cheerleading coach pushing cheerleaders down in splits. Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg also on Friday released a report by a law firm that the district ordered after learning about the videos in August. Officials have said the school administrators saw at least one of the videos in June and

DENVER, Co. (AP) - A Colorado principal has retired and an athletic director has resigned after videos surfaced showing a high school cheerleading coach pushing cheerleaders down in splits. Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg also on Friday released a report by a law firm that the district ordered after learning about the videos in August. Officials have said the school administrators saw at least one of the videos in June and

In a media release from the Strahan family, they said: "The Strahan family invites the public to join them in a memorial service celebrating the life of their son Sam Strahan. The service starts at 2:00 pm in the University High School Gym. The family is so appreciative of the outpouring of love from so many people throughout this community. We hope everyone can join them for this celebration. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers."

In a media release from the Strahan family, they said: "The Strahan family invites the public to join them in a memorial service celebrating the life of their son Sam Strahan. The service starts at 2:00 pm in the University High School Gym. The family is so appreciative of the outpouring of love from so many people throughout this community. We hope everyone can join them for this celebration. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers."

(AP) - A federal judge has granted preliminary approval of a lawsuit settlement requiring Mercedes-Benz to replace seat heaters in up to 270,000 SUVs. Southern California-based Judge James Selna preliminarily approved the potentially $80 million settlement on Monday. The plaintiffs argue that seat heaters in some Mercedes-Benz SUVs made between 2000 and 2007 have been known to spark or smoke. A California woman who filed the lawsuit in 2014 said her seat heater burned a hole throug...

(AP) - A federal judge has granted preliminary approval of a lawsuit settlement requiring Mercedes-Benz to replace seat heaters in up to 270,000 SUVs. Southern California-based Judge James Selna preliminarily approved the potentially $80 million settlement on Monday. The plaintiffs argue that seat heaters in some Mercedes-Benz SUVs made between 2000 and 2007 have been known to spark or smoke. A California woman who filed the lawsuit in 2014 said her seat heater burned a hole throug...

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (AP) - Is there going to be another addition to the Jenner-Kardashian clan? Several media outlets, including TMZ and People, are reporting Friday that 20-year-old Kylie Jenner, the youngest member of the reality show family, is expecting a child with her boyfriend Travis Scott. Reps did not confirm the pregnancy, however, and did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment. (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (AP) - Is there going to be another addition to the Jenner-Kardashian clan? Several media outlets, including TMZ and People, are reporting Friday that 20-year-old Kylie Jenner, the youngest member of the reality show family, is expecting a child with her boyfriend Travis Scott. Reps did not confirm the pregnancy, however, and did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment. (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. NBC News - A semi-truck carrying pumpkins crashed early Friday morning in Florida, creating a charred pumpkin mess. The crash closed a portion of the southbound lanes of I-75 in Pasco County. Florida highway patrol investigators say around 4:30 this morning the truck driver was in the outside lane, and drove into a barrier at the exit ramp. The truck traveled southbound several hundred feet, before coming to rest and bursting into flames.

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. NBC News - A semi-truck carrying pumpkins crashed early Friday morning in Florida, creating a charred pumpkin mess. The crash closed a portion of the southbound lanes of I-75 in Pasco County. Florida highway patrol investigators say around 4:30 this morning the truck driver was in the outside lane, and drove into a barrier at the exit ramp. The truck traveled southbound several hundred feet, before coming to rest and bursting into flames.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. NBC - A WWII veteran finally received the medals he earned while serving in Europe more than seven decades ago. 94-year-old Roscoe Kerr, Junior joined the 28th Medical Depot Company when he was 19. He was in a crash and spent several months in the hospital before being discharged. For decades, he felt like he was never part of the greatest generation because he was never officially recognized. Kerr's son-in-law wrote to the Department of Defense to try and get his medals.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. NBC - A WWII veteran finally received the medals he earned while serving in Europe more than seven decades ago. 94-year-old Roscoe Kerr, Junior joined the 28th Medical Depot Company when he was 19. He was in a crash and spent several months in the hospital before being discharged. For decades, he felt like he was never part of the greatest generation because he was never officially recognized. Kerr's son-in-law wrote to the Department of Defense to try and get his medals.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (AP) - A Minneapolis City Council member has given one of her opponents something to chew over - a piece of chewed gum. Twenty-year incumbent Lisa Goodman took the gum out of her mouth and handed it to challenger Teqen Zea-Aida before the start of a candidate forum Tuesday. Goodman asked Zea-Aida: "Would you take my gum, please?" Goodman tells the Star Tribune she couldn't find any paper to get rid

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (AP) - A Minneapolis City Council member has given one of her opponents something to chew over - a piece of chewed gum. Twenty-year incumbent Lisa Goodman took the gum out of her mouth and handed it to challenger Teqen Zea-Aida before the start of a candidate forum Tuesday. Goodman asked Zea-Aida: "Would you take my gum, please?" Goodman tells the Star Tribune she couldn't find any paper to get rid